Despite previously saying his peace about the existence of the fabled “Ayer Cut” of the 2016 film Suicide Squad, filmmaker David Ayer has taken to social media to hype up his version of the 2016 feature film and the performance by Jared Leto as The Joker that was left on the cutting room floor (Leto has found himself in the news recently as his performances in the upcoming in high profile trailers). Ayer’s tweet simply reads “Jared killed it But no one knows” and includes a photo of Leto in character on set holding a baseball bat, seemingly an all-new image as Google image search turns up no results. You can check it out for yourself below.
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“I put my life into Suicide Squad,” Ayer previously wrote in an extensive open letter, which he captioned “My turn” in a tweet. “I made something amazing. My cut is intricate and emotional journey with some bad people who are shit on and discarded (a theme that resonates in my soul). The studio cut is not my movie. Read that again. And my cut is not the 10 week director’s cut – it’s a fully mature edit by Lee Smith standing on the incredible work by John Gilroy. It’s all Steven Price’s brilliant score, with not a single radio song in the whole thing. It has traditional character arcs, amazing performances, a solid third-act resolution. A handful of people have seen it.”
Ayer’s three page letter on the matter culminated in the lines: “Every movie is a miracle. And James’ brilliant work will be the miracles of miracles. I appreciate your patience. I will no longer speak publicly on this matter.”
Following the successful campaign to get Zack Snyder’s Justice League, the four hour extended cut which was released earlier this year on HBO Max, hope was held out that Warner Bros. might provide the same treatment to Ayer’s version of Suicide Squad. Previously cut material from that version has found its way online with photos showing a Deadshot/Harley Quinn kiss, plus original script pages from Ayer that would have resulted in a much different version. Even before Snyder’s director’s cut could be released though WB made it clear they weren’t bringing out the longer version of the 2016 film.
“We won’t be developing David Ayer’s cut [of Suicide Squad],” Ann Sarnoff, Chair and CEO of WarnerMedia Studios and Networks Group, told Variety back in March.
The calls for the release of the Ayer cut however continue.
